Meet the Commuter's Next Editor: Justin Bolger

This year Justin Bolger was managing editor of a Commuter staff that earned 15 awards at the annual statewide journalism competition. He's looking to raise the bar even higher as editor-in-chief.

On Wednesday, LBCC's Student Publications Committee appointed Bolger the next editor-in-chief at the Commuter. He will succeed Max Brown, whose tenure will wrap up with the newspaper's last issue of the school year on June 2.

The Commuter's editor-in-chief manages the daily activities of the student newspaper beginning in the summer and continuing through the school year. The duties of newspaper's top editor include:

* Setting the editorial direction of the paper.
* Appointing the managing the newspaper's staff of editors, reporters and photographers.
* Coordinating the work of the staff, including assigning and editing stories and photos.
* Leading staff meetings and other newspaper activities.
* Representing the newspaper in the college community.

In collaboration with Brown and other staffers at the paper, Bolger focused on expanding the coverage of campus news, focusing heavily on LBCC events, staff and students. In interviewing for the top job, Bolger said he would like next year's staff to maintain the paper's commitment to campus coverage but also expand interactions with readers, including more interactivity on the newspaper's website as well as more diversity of opinion in the pages of the printed edition.

Earlier this month, the Commuter earned 15 awards in the annual Collegiate Newspaper Contest organized by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Bolger earned a first-place award for editorial writing. LBCC and the Commuter hosted this year's Collegiate Day, ONPA's annual college journalism conference and awards program.

The 10-member Student Publications Committee consists of LBCC students, faculty and staff and meets each spring to interview editor-in-chief applicants and appoint a new Commuter editor.

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U.S. Poet Leureate Kay Ryan visits LBCC

Photo by Christina Koci Hernandez/Library of Congress

Like the next-door neighbor stopping by to chat, Kay Ryan visited with LBCC this week, sharing her poetry, insights to her craft and what it's like to be the nation's poet laureate.

She entertained more than 400 area residents who filled the Russell Tripp Performance Center for her reading Wednesday afternoon. Another 75 or so students crammed into LBCC's Library Reading Room to ask her questions on Thursday morning.

During the reading, she shared a variety of poems from her 30-year writing career. Many of them have been published or republished in her just-released collection, "Best of It: News and Selected Poems." Among those she read was "Train-Track Figure":

Imagine a
train-track figure
made of sliver
over sliver of
between-car
vision, each
slice too brief
to add detail
or deepen: that
could be a hat
if it's a person
if it's a person
if it's a person.
Just the same
scant information
timed to supplant
the same scant
information.

She also read a poem called “The Walking Stick Insect.” It was one of several Ryan poems inspired by the odd collection that Robert Leroy Ripley made famous in his "Ripley's Believe It or Not" books.

The epigraph to the poem, which is from "Jam Jar Lifeboat & Other Novelties Exposed," says, “The walking stick insect of South America often loses an antenna or leg — but always grows a new appendage. Often nature makes a mistake and a new antenna grows where the leg was lost.” Here it is:

Eventually the

most accident-prone

or war-weary

walking sticks

are entirely

reduced to antennae

with which they

pick their way

sensitively,

appalled by

everything’s

intensity.

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LBCC Looks to Select Next Commuter Editor

In two weeks LBCC's student newspaper, The Commuter, will know the next editor-in-chief.

On May 19 the college's Student Publications Committee will interview applicants vying to become next year's editor. The Commuter's editor-in-chief manages the daily activities of the student newspaper beginning in the summer and continuing through the school year.

The Student Publications Committee is now accepting applications for the position.

The current editor-in-chief, Max Brown, will wrap up his tenure with publication of the last edition for this school year on June 2. Brown took over for Ryan Henson at the end of fall term, after Henson had to return to Pennsylvania for family reasons.

The duties of The Commuter's editor-in-chief include:

• Setting the editorial direction of the paper
• Appointing the managing the newspaper's staff of editors, reporters and photographers
• Coordinating the work of the staff, including assigning and editing stories and photos
• Leading staff meetings and other newspaper activities
• Representing the newspaper in the college community

For an application and more information, those seeking to become editor-in-chief can contact The Commuter's adviser, Rob Priewe, by stopping by his office in North Santiam Hall, Room 114, or by calling 541-917-4563. Or send e-mail to rob.priewe@linnbenton.edu.

The 10-member Student Publications Committee consists of LBCC students, faculty and staff and meets each spring to interview applicants and appoint a new Commuter editor.

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ONPA Holds Annual Collegiate Day at LBCC

The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association will hold its annual Collegiate Day journalism workshop and awards program this Friday, May 7, at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany.

More than 100 college journalists from around the state are expected to attend the event, which will include four journalism workshops and presentation of awards in the Collegiate Newspaper Contest.

This year's morning workshops are:

• "Interviewing," by KeizerTimes Publisher Lyndon Zaitz
• "Social Networking and the Media," by Corvallis Gazette-Times Entertainment Editor Nancy Raskauskas and Oregonian Sports Writer Lindsay Schnell
• "Open Records/Meetings and Legal/Ethics," by Portland State University Student Publications Adviser Judson Randall and Duane Bosworth, a partner in the Portland law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine
• "Building a Strong Editorial Page," by Albany Democrat-Herald Editor Hasso Hering

In the afternoon, the student journalists will be recognized for outstanding works of journalism printed in their school publications over the past year. These include writing, editing and photography awards. The top publications will be honored with the General Excellence Award for their staffs.

The annual contest is supported by the ONPA's Oregon Newspapers Foundation. Awards will be presented by Martha Wells, publisher of the Albany Democrat-Herald and immediate past president of ONPA.

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Luckie Shares Tips for Open-Source Newsroom

SAN FRANCISCO -- The open-source newsroom of tomorrow has arrived.

Mark Luckie, a veteran journalist and expert in using new media tools, provided journalists with a smorgasbord of open-source technology they can use to improve they way they gather, process and distribute news to their readers. Luckie, creator of the popular "10,000 Words" blog, spoke Sunday during the "Journalism Innovations III" conference at the University of San Francisco.

All the tools he demonstrated can be downloaded for free or purchased for less than $10. Luckie uses many of the tools regularly in his job as a multimedia producer at CaliforniaWatch, a project of the Center for Investigative Journalism.

Declaring himself at "PC guy" at the outset, he noted that he uses Macs at work and all of the software he demonstrated can be used on either system.

These days, he added, journalists at large, medium and small organizations as well as those flying solo are using these tools to better organize information, tell stories and serve readers.

Here is the list of tools he discussed during his presentation (See http://10000words.net/ji3 to link directly to all these tools):

Content Management Systems/Collaboration
WordPress
Drupal
Buddy Press
Google Docs

Audio/Video Editing
GarageBand
iMovie
Audacity

Photo Editing
Splashup
Fotoflexer

Creating Maps/Interactive Graphics
UMapper
Map Builder
PhotoPeach
Dipity

Wikis/Collaboration
MediaWiki
CoverItLive
UStream

iPhone Apps
WordPress for iPhone
FourTrack
Pano
AudioBoo

Luckie has written about most of these tools on his 10,000 Words blog.

The conference was sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter, and Independent Arts & Media.

For more information, Luckie invited e-mail at mluckie@10000words.net. Or follow him on Twitter -- http://twitter.com/10000Words.

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Journalists Highlight Violence Against Overseas Media

Teru Kuwayama is one of a declining number of photographers and reporters working in war zones. He has covered conflicts in Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, to name a few. Here is an example of his work from the front lines.

Photo courtesy of Teru Kuwayama

SAN FRANCISCO -- Photojournalist Teru Kuwayama spent a week being shuttled from one Tajik military base to another after he was apprehended and detained by Tajikistan soldiers on the border with Afghanistan. Eventually, the U.S. journalist was freed with the arrival of U.S. Army and State Department officers.

Kuwayama was fortunate, however. He had the might of the United States backing his standing as a freelance photographer in war zones from Pakistan and Iraq to Afghanistan. He knows many others, especially those in-country contacts (e.g. drivers, translators and other foreign journalists) who died pursuing stories, photos and the free flow of information in their homelands.

During a discussion Sunday titled "International News in the 21st Century" at the University of San Francisco, Kuwayama and other panelists lamented the decline not only in the number of foreign correspondents and photographers working for mainstream U.S. media organizations, but also the escalating violence against overseas journalists and those who help them report what is going on.

The talk was part of the "Journalism Innovations III" conference co-hosted by the Society of Professional Journalists and Independent Arts & Media. Joining Kuwayama on the panel were Ricardo Sandoval Palos of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., along with SPJ National President Kevin Smith and Ronnie Lovler, international news editor for Newswire21, based in the Bay Area.

The panelists agreed that the alarming decline of foreign journalists employed by U.S. media has been part of a precipitous decline in foreign news-gathering. At the same time, the absence of U.S. journalists has emboldened foreign governments and warring factions to step up killings, kidnappings and threats against those who report the news and others who assist in news-gathering, also known as "fixers." Fixers are critical in providing logistical support, including travel, food and shelter, to foreign journalists.

They are the "undocumented labor force of international journalism," the people who do the heavy lifting, Kuwayama noted.

Sandoval Palos alluded to the growing violence in Mexico and Latin America, which has claimed the lives of several journalists and numerous threats based on stories they either have published or are reporting.

Smith, president of the largest organization of journalists in the United States, said SPJ is stepping up lobbying efforts, urging the State Department and other agencies to defend the work of foreign journalists. SPJ also is partnering with overseas journalism organizations such as the International Federation of Journalists.

Overseas, Smith added, the United States remains the "guiding light" for a free press and democracy. However, violence against journalists is on the rise, threatening the free flow of information and the pursuit of democracy around the globe.

Asked about the shrinking pool of foreign correspondents, Kuwayama described himself as a "hybrid, freelance war tourist." He has worked for a variety of news organizations, including Time magazine.

Unfortunately, Sandoval Palos said, fewer people such as Kuwayama are doing the important work of reporting news in foreign lands, particularly war zones. And those who are, need all the support they can get.

"If we don't do it," he said, "we have fewer voices that will be heard."

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